The “Copyright Alert System,” aka “six strikes,” kicked off today with the cooperation of five major Internet service providers. The goal of the new campaign is to curb copyright infringement by going after consumers rather than pirates.

While the CAS seems like something that would raise the hackles of privacy and civil liberty groups, the plan isn’t to arrest, sue, or fine people downloading illegal movies, games, or music. Instead, the group managing the program — the Center for Copyright Information — says its objective is to “educate” such downloaders that they are infringing on protected intellectual copyrights.

“Implementation marks the culmination of many months of work on this groundbreaking and collaborative effort to curb online piracy and promote the lawful use of digital music, movies and TV shows,” executive director for the Center for Copyright Information Jill Lesser wrote in a blog post today. “The CAS marks a new way to reach consumers who may be engaging in peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy.”

The Center for Copyright Information is a joint venture between Hollywood copyright holders and ISPs — it is also backed by the White House. AT&T, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast are the participating ISP members in the venture.